Valve grants Half-Life modders access to game engine to build standalone co-op version

Half-Life fans, rejoice! It’s been nearly 15 years in the making but the time has finally come. The Sven Co-op team, responsible for the dated (but still updated) Half-Life co-op mod, has been granted full access to build a standalone...

Wow, this is the best idea ever. Why don't other companies do this? Such as Bethesda allow modders to make Morrowind, Oblivion or Skyrim fully non-buggy-non-alpha multiplayer?

95% of computer games these days should have some form of Cooperative play for everyone to enjoy, I can't mention many cooperative games that are avaliable for Xbox 360 because of this whole achievement system has spoiled it (such as you can't use two profiles at once on some games like Dynasty Warriors because maybe you'll grind the achievements).

Wow, this is the best idea ever. Why don't other companies do this? Such as Bethesda allow modders to make Morrowind, Oblivion or Skyrim fully non-buggy-non-alpha multiplayer?

95% of computer games these days should have some form of Cooperative play for everyone to enjoy, I can't mention many cooperative games that are avaliable for Xbox 360 because of this whole achievement system has spoiled it (such as you can't use two profiles at once on some games like Dynasty Warriors because maybe you'll grind the achievements).

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THIS. And don't stop with merely letting the community fix or create multiplayer, either - let them fix all the bugs that the original devs never get around to addressing (or even acknowledging in some cases). Seriously, why not? Open source the patch process if you will...the original studio will have to sign off on all contributions but honestly, that's unpaid expertise they could be capitalizing on while building incredible goodwill. What amateur game dev or modder wouldn't be satisfied with seeing his name in the credits of a patch or DLC??

Valve: It seems like the just get the gaming community. They do things to encourage gamers and build up good will and a great reputation. People are happy to buy from them.

EA: Corporate entity that seems to want to squeeze out money from people and would be happy making widgets if that got them the money. They do just enough work so people will buy from them. People begrudgingly buy from them.

Two extremes, two choices. I'm very thankful for Valve. Great summer sale.